Relaxing the Rules

From Today's NYTimes:

U.S. Set to Ease Some Provisions of School Law


By SAM DILLON

Published: March 14, 2004



Education Secretary Rod Paige says the Bush administration is working to soften the impact of important provisions of its centerpiece school improvement law that local educators and state lawmakers have attacked as arbitrary and unfair.

On Monday, the Education Department will announce policies relaxing a requirement that says teachers must have a degree or otherwise certify themselves in every subject they teach, Dr. Paige said in an interview on Friday. Officials are also preparing to offer new flexibility on regulations governing required participation rates on standardized tests, he said.

There's more...but I'm not exactly sure what to make of it. In one sense, I think that some change is necessary, or at least the law needs to be fully funded. In a different sense, I don't, for a second, agree that it's okay for the people teaching our children to not have a degree or to be certified. Certification doesn't take that long (about two years), and considering the benefits that it offers in terms of career options and peace of mind, it shouldn't be that big of a deal to anyone truly serious about teaching. What this does, more or less, is open the door to the "darkside" of educators, those who want to teach but don't want to go through the process it takes to get certified. I personally wouldn't be comfortable having my hypothetical child being taught by Joe Offthestreet.

But then again, what do I know?